Texas Student Faces Suspension for Locs Just Days After Crown Act Enacted

Due to his loc hairstyle, a Black high school student in Texas has been suspended for more than a week, according to his mother.

A new state law that forbids discrimination based on hairstyles may be put to the test as a result of this. According to his mother, Darresha George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Darryl George was suspended from school and given three disciplinary action letters for putting his locs up in a ponytail.

She said that the state’s CROWN Act, which forbids discrimination based on a person’s hair texture or protective hairstyles like locs and braids, went into effect the same week that Darryl was suspended.

CNN’s inquiries for comment from the institution and the Barbers Hill Independent School District went unanswered.

According to a district spokesperson, the CROWN Act and the hair length limit don’t contradict.

George was given an additional five days of punishment on September 8 because, according to his mother, he had “hair below his eyebrows when let down.” If he doesn’t trim his hair by the end of the week, she said, he would now be sent to an alternative school known as a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program.

Texas School vs. CROWN Act and Locs

texas-student-faces-suspension-locs-just-days-after-crown-act-enacted — Due to his loc hairstyle, a Black high school student in Texas has been suspended for more than a week, according to his mother.

George claims that when she complained to school officials about their regulations, they informed her that the CROWN Act did not extend to restrictions on hair length. She stated that her kid would not trim his locs and that the family will continue to challenge the regulations of the school.

According to Allie Booker, the family’s lawyer, the male hairstyle regulations unfairly target Black students. Hairstyles known as locs, which are created by coiling, braiding, twisting, or palm-rolling hair strands to resemble ropes, have their origins in Africa and have since assimilated into Black culture.

Forcing children of color to cut their locs or forbidding them from donning protective hairstyles like braids or locs, according to critics, is equivalent to robbing them of their sense of cultural identity.

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, approved the CROWN Act in May. The “most validating feeling,” according to Arnold, was the law’s passing, he told CNN affiliate KTRK. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the CROWN Act has been adopted in twenty states.

In 2019, California was the first state to approve the law. The national CROWN Act has not been passed into law.

Source: CNN